Water Commission Allows Golf Course to Unlawfully Irrigate with Drinking Water Amid Ongoing West Maui Drought 

Honolulu, HI —

Earthjustice has sent Chair Dawn Chang and the Commission on Water Resource Management a request to immediately halt the unlawful use of drinking water from groundwater wells to irrigate its Kapalua Golf Course. This illegal water use has continued despite strong public objections of West Maui community members. In an August 22, 2025, correspondence from Chair Chang to Maui Land & Pineapple Co. (MLP), Chang confirmed, without legal basis and under false factual assumptions, that the use of potable groundwater “is allowed for irrigation uses, including at the Bay and Plantation Golf Courses.”

The courses, owned by TY Management Corp. (TY), have historically been irrigated with surface water delivered under an agreement with MLP. But since the summer, TY has used millions of gallons of potable groundwater water from wells owned by MLP, while West Maui continues to suffer from record-breaking drought, and residents remain under severe water restrictions. Drought conditions in West Maui have persisted into the wet season, yet TY continues to spray drinking water on its golf turf. It appears this will not stop unless the water commission corrects its previous misstep.

“In the middle of a historic drought for West Maui, Chair Chang allowed the golf course to use millions of gallons of drinking water to irrigate its grass without a permit,” said Dru Hara, an attorney with Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office. “There could not be a starker picture of the disconnect between this administration’s actions and the mission of this agency that they keep undermining.”

The commission designated the West Maui region, including Kapalua, as a surface and ground water management area on August 6, 2022. Under the State Water Code, applications to continue “existing uses” in the area must be submitted within one year of designation. Decisions on the permit applications are made by the whole commission, and failure to apply for an existing use by the deadline results in abandoning the use.

Records produced by the commission show that neither TY, nor the companies supplying the water, MLP and Hawaiʻi Water Service (HWS), have filed an existing use application for the use of groundwater to irrigate the Kapalua courses. Earthjustice’s letter explains this use is prohibited by law. Chair Chang ignored these details when she issued her correspondence in August allowing the use of groundwater to irrigate the Kapalua courses. Since then, HWS and MLP have provided potable groundwater for TY’s golf course, against the community’s objections.

“The people in this area should not be made to wait any longer, especially when golf courses that don’t have pono [requests to use water] are allowed to water their courses with drinking water. That is appalling and absolutely unacceptable. It doesn’t matter if they have previously made this atrocious decision to pump groundwater to water the grass of non-essential activities,” said Lauren Palakiko, a West Maui resident, at last month’s commission meeting.

The chair’s correspondence allowing the use of drinking water for golf course irrigation recalls a similar incident two years before, in the wake of the August 2023 Lahaina wildfire. Chair Chang issued a letter to West Maui landowner Peter Martin allowing him to drain streams to fill his reservoirs, cutting off downstream water users like the Palakikos. After community members protested and media reports exposed the injustice, Chair Chang rescinded her decision. Chair Chang has now added further insult and injury for West Maui community members by prioritizing golf course irrigation while community members’ water use permit applications sit and wait for commission action.

“Why is it that, every time a rich landowner comes calling for water, the Green administration’s auto-response is to give them whatever they want, never mind the law and the community?” added Isaac Moriwake, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office. “It’s high time that this administration respected the law and put the West Maui kamaʻāina community first.”

This Tuesday, November 18, 2025, the commission will hear an informational briefing from its staff on the status of existing water use permit applications for public and private water systems in the Lahaina Surface and Groundwater Management Area.